Series Finales 2012

I have to admit that I’m a series freak. When you come back home drained from work, and you had a quick dinner not even managing to remember what you ate, you had your shower and put on your PJs, and you caught up on whatever’s happening on facebook, you kind of don’t want to watch the news, and you don’t have enough energy for a whole movie. So a 40 min episode of your favourite show just fits. Some of them you just started watching, some of them you’ve been hooked up to since university times, when you could download a whole season in a click. Some of them you watch just to have a laugh, or check out the new fashion trends, but some of them you watch because the plots are so intricate that you cannot guess what will happen next… and that is the beauty of it, when a finale or a turn of event really surprises you and leaves you with your mouth wide open!

First and foremost, goodbye to my good friends: the series that have ended forever this year:

Desperate Housewives

Bittersweet ending with all the characters leading happily ever after lives. I will miss this witty and funny series

One Tree Hill

This series had to end, it was dragging up a bit, but they managed to spice it up just enough in the last season. Bittersweet finale again, with Gavin De Graw coming up to sing the title song on stage at Tric, and the series finishing on all the cast coming to see a teenager Jamie playing his first basketball match with U2’s One Tree Hill as background. It was quite a moment.

Now, for the ratings of the finales of ongoing series (Rated over 10). BEWARE OF SPOILERS, you are warned!

DEXTER Season 6

How to keep people hooked on the story of a blood spatter expert who kills bad guys according to a code because it’s in his system? Ask the scriptwriter of Dexter, because with each season, the plot keeps getting better and better. For Season 6, they used the myth that the end of the world is going to be in 2012 with a Doomsday Killer villain who enacted Doomsday scenes from the bible. Who would have guessed that the actual killer was the schizophrenic student of the actual professor, and who would have EVER guessed that Deb’s psychological therapy would reveal that she was actually in love with her brother… leading to the schocking, blood-curdling, screaming in your sweater, finale scene where Deb actually witnesses Dexter practising THE killing ritual… wow Rating: 8.5

Vampire Diaries Season 3

I started watching this series because I love vampires almost as much as I love Ian Somerhalder ❤ It is based on an actual book, which I never wikipedia-ed, so the plot twists still manage to surprise me. Everybody knew that the Stefan – Elena – Damon love triangle would constitute the emotional backbone of the series, so there could never be a conclusion on Elena’s choice, not until the very end at least. And the fact that Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder are actually going out in real life, it would be quite cliché to reflect the same on screen. So, when confronted with the choice of going to the side of her love, when knowing that he might be dying and it might be the last chance for her to see him because super vampire slayer Alaric had just killed the original Klaus, who is the original vampire behind both of Stefan’s and Damon’s bloodline, boring Elena chooses Stefan, that is for “the right kind of love” over the “all consuming type of love” (WHO does that??). I expected no less from boring Elena Gilbert. But then in the final scene, Elena and Matt’s car fall into the lake, and Stefan has time to save only one of them, and boring Stefan succumbs to Elena’s insistence of saving Matt. Then she dies, but she had vampire blood in her system… so she becomes a vampire. Such a surprising, inevitable moment beautifully captured by Sigur Ros’ Dauoalog… Rating 8.0

Californication Season 5

You usually fast forward a series to 3 years later when you do not know what else to do with the current plot. This was quite OK in Californication, Hank moved to New York, Karen got married to another writer, Becca goes to college. The rest became quite predictable. Karen’s marriage falls apart and ends in a divorce, Becca falls in love with a “younger, better version of Hank”. Hank still sleeps with women he should not be sleeping with. Despite trying really hard though, in the end, Hank manages to get himself drugged by his psycho ex girlfriend and we are left in suspense not knowing whether he will be able to make it or not. But he has to or else the series will be over. Quite a pointless finale, really. Rating 4.0

Gossip Girl Season 5

With every episode this season, I kept asking myself, why, for the love of life, I keep watching this series? Blair’s supposed marriage to the Prince of Monaco (which with Kate Middleton’s wedding was quite a commercial, unoriginal choice of plot), after episodessss of debate over choosing between Louis and Chuck ends on an ugly revelation that Louis only married for show and does not love Blair at all. After all this drama is over, Blair surprises everybody and chooses to go out with Dan Humprey of all people. B O R I N G! Chuck’s father comes back to life and – oh surprise! – after a few minutes of heartfelt reunion attempts to disinherit his son because of his weakness for Blair. Lily loses her inheritance, gets it back, then loses her mind, annuls her marriage with Rufus to go back with Bart Bass. Serena becomes Gossip Girl for a while, becomes even more pathetic than she already was, and then loses all her friends. Why don’t they kill off this character already? Serena is the living proof that long legs and blond hair is just not sufficient to make a character appealing. And what the hell happened to the character’s college degrees, there is no mention of them going to classes! How very much insulting for us fans for the scriptwriters to think that we will not catch up on this! In the end, for the sake of Blair returning by the side of Chuck to help him win back his fortune in Monte Carlo, I give GG a Rating of 3.0, and that’s being generous.

90210 Season 4

What’s up with this series? And why the hell do I watch that? There is a broken marriage, somebody with a cancer problem, somebody who became a hooker to get money, somebody who died in the finale, a love triangle that ends up badly. SO PREDICTABLE and lame! Rating 2.0

How I met your mother Season 7

Season 7 and STILL dragging on, at least in the finale we come a little bit closer to knowing at who Ted ends up with. But we are kind of sick of it now. Just when we feel that the scriptwriters took the easy way out and did not introduce a totally new potential “mother” but with a weird turn of events, they reunite Ted with one of his ex-girlfriends! Not very convincing, and quite sloppy actually. And what’s the deal with Robin in bride gear? So confusing! We give it a Rating 4.0 just for the sake of the witty humour throughout the series, and for them finally making Barney get into a serious relationship.

Pretty Little Liars Season 2

Ok, this is the only high school series I still allow myself to watch. Vampire Diaries does not count because it’s about vampires. I started watching it last year during summer season break and kind of got hooked up. Genius marketing tactic, releasing episodes during normal season breaks, when there is nothing else to watch. Unlike with Vampire Diaries, I actually wikipedia-ed the book series, which itself has not had its last volume out yet (out in December 2012). So I kind of already know more or less who A is, considering that it is based on a book, the plot is quite good, and I find the Liars’ outfit, makeup and hair stylists amazinggg! Overall, the last finale revealing (not really correctly) that Mona is A, gets Rating 6.0

Modern Family Season 3

Modern Family is what you watch when you want to spend 20 mins in good company laughing. The characters are funny and you get attached easily. Comedywise, I give it a nice solid Rating 7.0.

America’s Nest Top Model Season 18

I still hate Tyra Banks, but she got (and showed everybody through the show) a Harvard MBA and is using it well. This season in ANTM British Invasion, it was 6 US girls against 6 Brits and finally a Brit won! I watch ANTM because got hooked up on it in London, and it is actually the only reality tv show I watch, it really is entertaining to watch makeovers, pretty girls bickering over each other, and transform in each photoshoot, love it! This season gets Rating 6.0 (not less than 2 girls quit the show!) on drama and a deserving winner!

Game of Thrones Season 2

Now I started to watch Game of Thrones because, I admit, it was No. 1 on all TV show charts, and I was running out of series to watch. At first, I found it really gore and crude. But then, you kind of get hooked on the plot on the game of winning over the iron throne of the 7 kingdoms of Westeros. Much like Lord of the Rings, the details are very intricate and generous in details. You get attached to the main character in Season 1 and in the finale, his head gets chopped off! It is definitely a much more grown up series, with a serious plot, in a fictitious land with mystery, fantasy and (a lot) of bloodshed. My favourite quote so far is from Arya’s “dance” teacher : “In battle, there is only one God, the God of Death. And when Death stares you in the face, what do you say?…  Not today!”

I haven’t yet reached the finale of Season 2, so a rating is yet to come!